Firing Range

Xbox Live Indie Trial Game – Firing Range

Firing Range is an indie videogame about well, a Firing Range. This indie first-person shooter was developed and published by Milkstone Studios SL for Xbox Live Indie Games Marketplace or XBLIGM for short. Firing Range released today November 11, 2011. I played hundreds of videogames over the years but don’t recall ever playing one that is just about shooting at a firing range. Sure Call of Duty always had firing ranges in their tutorials but thats different.

The main menu screen featured sub menus of Start Game, Upgrade to Full Game, How to Play, Shop, Extras and Exit. The only menu i really had to bother with was Start Game. I admit i did spend a minute in the How to Play section to see if there was possibly anything else besides shooting targets in a firing range, there wasn’t. As far as gameplay goes its what you expect. You shoot moving and still targets that are scored by how many targets you hit and how fast. Bullseyes also nets you multiplier bonus points.

The guns you use are a pistol, SMG (Small Machine Gun) and assault rifle. The guns are rotated with the pistol first then SMG then assault rifle. You can use ironsights which helps accuracy for far targets. From a “feel” standpoint this game isn’t comparable to Call of Duty or Battlefield (obviously). However, for an indie game the controls, aiming, shooting and kickback do feel decent. If Milkstone Studios made a first-person shooter with the  engine used in Firing Range i would be interested.

After using all of the guns in the rotation the trial ends and your scored on a few gameplay aspects. Total Score, Accuracy, Shots Fired, Reload, Bullseye Accuracy, Max Combo, Targets Hit, Targets Missed, World Rank and Friends Rank. If nothing else Firing Range makes good FPS practice. It may not be the most fun or interesting game but does what it sets out to do. As far as the visuals go they are pretty good. The texture work on the guns were good. The color  palette was decent and some effects were present.

The sound design or should i say music sound like some generic Call of Duty rip-off. The sound design was ok featuring crowd noise in the background between levels. The shop is where you can buy skins for your pistol, SMG and assault rifle. Costs per skin ranges between $20 to $300 in-game credits. You earn money from playing the game naturally. The skins ranged from Pink, Desert Cow, Jungle, Ice, Jungle Digital, Snow Leopard and Rainbow.

Firing Range if nothing else gives you a place to practice your first-person shooter skills all wrapped up in a neat little indie game. If you need practice fork over 80 MSP for Firing Range. Thanks for reading.